Suffering Fools
by Meridian1
Summary: The indignity of his situation sets Drake on a collision course with the Daywalker set during Blade: Trinity.


Title: Suffering Fools

Author: Meridian

Summary: The indignity of his situation sets Drake on a collision course with the Daywalker. (set during _Blade: Trinity_)

Rating: PG-13 (some language, violent imagery)

Author's Note: I liked Drake's philosophy a lot more than was realized on film. Not enough was made of his Darwinian posturing about the unfitness of vampires in modern day to live up to his standards. He just became a 'grrr-bad-guy!' caricature by the end, when there could have been so much more. This is the telling of Drake's final hours, hopefully providing some insight into his motives in the last act of his life.

* * *

SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1 "Did you have fun?"

He ignored the female, the one who was always short with him yet shivering with terror lest he lose his temper with her. She was no better than the others who treated him with due respect and abject fear; she only pretended to be. The others were relieved to have him among them, buoyed by vague promises of their assured safety while he walked above the ground. Fools. Had they not heard what had happened in the desert? The female had probably found it convenient not to tell them. It made her feel powerful when she was not.

She ran after him once the sun-shielding shutters clicked home, daring to follow him only once sunlight was sealed away. Coward. She dogged his footsteps as he climbed to the small room in which he had taken up residence. He sat, imperiously, in one of the luxurious chairs. Such softness his people cultivated. No wonder they were _weak_.

"What did you learn?" The female pestered him, tapping her impractical footwear. The one she called brother, the smaller of the two males who had found him, approached from behind to embrace and stand beside her. She called him brother, yet treated him as lover. How low his kind had fallen, to recruit such people to the night.

"I met the hunter," he said, weary of them already, wishing for nothing but their absence. Let them be gone to their perversions and their spoils, let them leave him in peace. However, at his mention of Blade, they both tittered nervously, and he knew he would not soon be rid of them.

"Where? Did you kill him?" The female chewed on her pinky fingernail like a child afraid of a scolding.

"No, I did not."

"Why the hell not?"

"Easy, Dan," the brother warned her needlessly. They were so scared, all of them. The human he had killed and copied died with more honor than these two - combined - would ever possess.

"I was not prepared for a battle," he said with some finality, aware that this would not sway her or convince her to leave. It was the truth. Honor was bound to honesty, and he to honor.

"Battle? _Battle_? You were supposed to _kill_ him."

"In time, I will." This was so. Blade would hunt him, as he had hunted these lesser beings who had come by his blood through the centuries. The hunter _would_ come to him, and he would meet him on a field of battle, not before.

"Why not kill him now?" The man could only muster a little of his sister-lover's disrespect.

"The time was not right. Had he not proven himself worthy, I would have dispatched him."

"Worthy? He's not even a vampire," the female hissed, petulant. He could hear the quavering in her voice; she disdained the hunter - she who had no right to judge - but she feared him, too.

"I will meet him again when I am ready to fight as is honorable."

Impatiently, impulsively, the female took a step into his sanctum. He growled, baring his teeth at her, and she skittered back to the doorway. Still haughty despite her retreat, she demanded, "When?"

"He will find me, I trust."

"None of ours would give up our location. We'd sooner kill them."

"Kill your humans, then. The hunter will come." He waved them away, but they would not obey and depart.

"We can't just wait. There is work to be done."

"Work, trickery, sorcery, research, I have heard all of this before. I have told you, I shall have _none of it_!" His roar finally sent the male wobbling backwards, defensive and quailing, but the female held her façade of bravery.

"I didn't mean to bother you with _our_ plans," she spat. "I was worrying about _theirs_."

This gave him pause. In war, there were always plans upon plans, strategies and spies, games played by those unequal to the task and glory of slaughter. By rights, these vampires were those people, the ones too weak to wield the sword and strike down their enemies; like humans, they were such diminished fighters. Worse than humans, really. The two humans in the hunter's employ displayed remarkable bravery, if not equal strength, to face him as they had done.

Still, his knowledge of human deception far outweighed his respect. Humans relied on their devious ingenuity to survive, a tendency which had corrupted his people, but which remained a primarily human cunning. The humans would not entrust Blade alone with their survival, this much he could believe.

"Go on," he permitted the female, reclining into his seat, leaning his head into one hand.

"The humans have used weapons against us before: silver, garlic, artificial sunlight."

"None of which concern me."

"They have also used things unknown to you in your time," she continued, righteously frenzied "They have chemicals that can burn our blood and explode our bodies and diseases that can cure humans who are bitten, and many, many other weapons. Who's to say they wouldn't have something that could take you down?"

"I fall to no _man's_ weapon." But now he was not so sure. In the millennia he had lived, he had seen all manner of destruction, unable to comprehend the sorrow or horror of it, merely appreciative of the savage efficiency. Diseases would wipe out men, make their blood taste foul and infect vampires for weeks while the illness was purged. Men of Rome and Greece had strange chemicals that burned when they touched water; mystics who ate the flesh of dead warriors gained their strengths; suns that rose late or early, or blacked out at the height of midday had caught some of his people unawares. Such things he had seen.

The female, for all her posturing, was astute. She studied him carefully while he considered these fates of man and vampire over the ages, then addressed him with a polite, oily enthusiasm.

"If you want to fight the hunter, you have to live to do it. I guarantee you that while Blade's little friends live, you will never be allowed to fight him fairly."

"I did not say I wanted a _fair_ fight," he challenged her, so disgusted with her mistake that he leapt out of his chair. There could never be a fair fight for any opposed to him. "Do not speak of what you cannot comprehend."

"You should follow your own advice," she grinned at him, running a finger over her lips. "I will get you Blade, on your terms, but you will have to do something for us."

"You have no power to barter, woman. State what you want of me, and I alone will decide if I shall grant your request."

"If you want Blade to face you, you need to give him an incentive."

"Warriors need no bribes, no threats. They fight for honor, out of necessity. It is what they are - what _I_ am."

"Necessity," she purred, repeating the word with tangible delight. "I _am_ talking of necessity." Pleased with herself for whatever reason, she ignored his territoriality and brushed bossily by him to take the seat he'd left vacant. "You won't get Blade to come by _waiting_ for him."

"He will come," he said again, ready to be done with this diversion and to concentrate on the battle ahead. Something stopped him, a little flickering of understanding, and he smiled, making the female more nervous.

"You're afraid the humans' weapon will harm _you_. Not _me_."

She held her chin up, defiant, eyes betraying her wavering courage. "Perhaps. Because if they attack to kill you, there is no chance any of us would survive."

"Why should I care if you live?"

"I _found_ you," she whined, stamping her feet.

"I did not ask to be found."

"So, you won't help us, even now? Even when the humans could move to wipe us all out? Your kind vanished forever and you care _nothing_ at all?"

No, he did not care. These vampires were a soil on his name, a discredit to his legacy. Better to have them gone, by any means, than to suffer them as he did. Perhaps he would allow Blade to slaughter these ones before the hunter himself was brought low. A satisfying solution. For now, he would settle for having the female out of his way.

"What do you want? Tell me so I may be rid of you. I need to prepare."

"We want the hunters wiped out."

He considered this, refusing to allow any trace of his thoughts to show on his face, making her worry. "I can do this. But why should I? If they fight well, I might consider taking them for my own." Like he had done all those centuries ago, fighting the noblest, the hardiest, the most keen, then, as they fell, turning them into his property. Long, long ago, he and his unholy twelve. Perchance the solution was to begin again, to stay awake this time and guide those of his new circle so they did not churn out refuse like these vampires.

"They won't fight you. Haven't you listened to anything I've said? They'll cheat, they'll hit you from afar, take your strength. That's no way for the founder of our race to die!"

"_Our_ race," he sneered, leaning over and lifting her to her feet by her chin. "_My _people? Never." He tossed her aside. At the door, unwilling to trespass as the female had, the brother helped her to her feet.

"If you want Blade, kill the humans," she snorted blood back up her nose where he'd hurt her. "Kill them, and he won't stop until you're dead."

"Humans do not interest me."

"They'll know, know about the weapon, whatever dirty trick Blade is planning. Without it," she smiled, "he has to fight you on _your_ terms. Isn't that what you want?"

"Yes," he replied, honestly.

"We have to disarm the humans, first."

"And you know how to do this." He did not ask, did not have to; she was itching to tell him because of what _she_ wanted.

"Kill the humans, the ones you fought today," her eyes flashed, opening wide with excitement. "All except _one_."

"Dan, we don't need-" the brother began, but she silenced him with a swift backwards jerk of her fist into his groin. He toppled, growling and cursing. Unimpressed, Drake waited for the rest.

"Bring back King. He'll know what they're doing."

"I don't know this name."

"I can show you," she enticed him, beckoning with a finger, which she hastily dropped when he glared at her. No one summoned _him_. She walked backwards, awkwardly, mock humble, and he followed her to where the larger male from the desert sat a ways down the adjoining corridor. He stood immediately, dropping a black book-like object in his haste to stand at attention. There was almost a warrior in this one, but his subservience to the female ruined him for it.

"Jarko, the security feed. Now."

The male retrieved the strange, glowing book, and tapped at square levers on one side; the other burst into life, showing some vision of the past. He recognized himself disguised as the dead human, Blade, and the two humans who had come with him.

"Freeze," the female ordered, and the entire vision stopped at her command. Wizardry, devil's work, whatever it was, it sickened and fascinated him. These were the new weapons of information the humans had developed, ways to freeze and save time and memory. Reliance on such talismans was pathetic. "There." She pointed to a picture of the human he had impaled. "Him. Bring him back here."

"Danica," the large male said, crossly. Just as the other had - neither of her companions were amenable to this human's survival or presence among them. How interesting.

"Not the girl," he said, probingly.

"Not important. I want him. He will have the information we need." She dismissed the idea outright. Her interests in the human were more personal than she dared speak aloud, and all her associates knew it. And now so did he.

"How will you find them?" The other vampire asked him. Were it not for his audible ignorance, he might have crushed this lowly creature for questioning his abilities.

"I have blooded the human. I can track him that way."

"Across the whole city?"

"Across the tundra and the mountains. Across the plains and the mire. Across rivers and oceans. Across Hell itself. There is no blood that can hide from me once I have gotten its scent." Even now, if he closed his eyes, he might find the trail with his nose, the invisible highway of blood-odor that flowed from a wound he had caused.

"Bloodhound," the female said appreciatively. "Are you going to go?"

He had not decided. He had merely followed through on his earlier offer. He had heard her out and would make his choice on his own terms. Her begging and needling mattered not at all.

This was not acceptable to her, however. "There is a _time_ issue."

"Be _silent_," he barked, snarling. How far _he_ must have fallen, to have to deal with this trash to get what he desired. Setting fire to the roof would sooner bring Blade to him, and he wouldn't have to cater to the whims of these creatures that presumed to call themselves descendents of his line. Still, if it would achieve a fight worthy of him, such as he had not hoped to see in a thousand years, he could play along. When he had what was his, there would be many, many changes.

"I will go."

Without another word, he left the squealing female trash with her hulking brute of a dog.


End file.
